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Audio 4:35
Video emerges of detained Al Jazeera journalists

Connie AgiusUpdated
Tue 4 Feb 2014, 7:31 PM AEDT

Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested in December last year. His Al Jazeera English colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Bahar Mohamed, were detained on the same day. Some are concerned that a video of their arrest and interrogation could prejudice proceedings.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The Qatar-based Al Jazeera network has condemned the broadcast in Egypt of a video of the arrest of two of its journalists. The network says the broadcast on a network sympathetic to the military government could prejudice legal proceedings.

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were detained in their office at the Marriott hotel along with the Australian journalist, Peter Greste.

Tahrir TV aired video of their arrest and interrogation, backed by sinister spy music and a banner labelling the journalists as The Mariott Cell.

Mohamed Fahmy's brother fears that his sibling is being mentally tortured.

He's answering questions from authorities and trying to explain that he and his colleague, Australian Peter Greste, are journalists.

The 22 minute video went to air on an Egyptian channel called Tahrir TV. The footage was filmed as authorities rifled through the Al Jazeera journalists' equipment. The interrogation took place in their makeshift news bureau at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo. Al Jazeera English say the publication of the video is an attempt to demonise the journalists.

Mohamed Fahmy's brother, Sherif, agrees.

SHERIF FAHMY: What I can tell you, this is extremely disgusting. This is against human rights. These journalists didn't do anything wrong. The fact itself that they add the soundtrack of Call of Duty, which is a war game, okay, to the video; once again, this is a message to the world that there is no more freedom of speech in Egypt.

CONNIE AGIUS: Mohamed Fahmy is being held in the maximum security Tora Prison, just north-east of Cairo.

He went into prison with a previously dislocated shoulder. It's now broken, and his injury is getting worse.

SHERIF FAHMY: When we saw him, his arm was almost like disabled. He doesn't feel it anymore. I think this is a kind of torture actually, because sooner or later this arm might be paralysed.

CONNIE AGIUS: Mohamed Fahmy faces a number of charges, including harming the general interests of Egypt, possessing broadcast equipment without a permit, and transmitting false images.

The most serious allegation is that he's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group the interim government has declared a terrorist organisation.

Mohamed Fahmy's family deny absolutely that he's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or any other terrorist organisation. They visited him in prison after the charges had been laid.

That was the first time he found out he had been charged.

SHERIF FAHMY: He lost his temper totally. He kept banging on the glass between us and him. He kept saying that "I'm a journalist, why are they doing this to me?" Mohamed, I tell you this honestly, Mohamed is being mentally tortured. Authorities inside prison are telling him that he will never see daylight again.

CONNIE AGIUS: Mohamed Fahmy's family say he's being held in solitary confinement. His cell is a small, dark, cold, concrete room and he's rarely let out.

SHERIF FAHMY: He's being provided water once every 24 hours and regarding food, they take them all out of their cells and they have two buckets, okay, and when I say bucket, it's like a toilet bucket - one that contains rice and the other one contains potatoes, every day. And they give them spoons and they all eat out of the same bucket.

CONNIE AGIUS: Sherif Fahmy says the Canadian Embassy provided Mohamed with a few necessities, but they too were taken away after bombs ripped through Cairo on the third anniversary of Egypt's revolution, January 25th.

SHERIF FAHMY: Everything that was provided by the Canadian consular service, like the blankets and the change of suits, along with the pen and paper, everything was taken away as a punishment due to the explosion that occurred in Cairo. This is the scary part. If they are punishing Mohamed for the explosions that happened on the 24th, it means the Egyptian authorities still think that Mohamed has something to do with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is extremely scary because he doesn't.

CONNIE AGIUS: Sherif Fahmy says that his brother's trial is expected to commence within two weeks. It's a date that should've been filled with a lot more joy.

SHERIF FAHMY: His wedding was planned to be on the 25th of February, so unfortunately instead of him being married at the end of this month, he will be still rotting in his cell.